ForeIncome II 7-Year with Guaranteed Income Builder review

Yes, for the right buyer. This is a good annuity for someone who is planning future protected lifetime income, wants principal protection along the way, and is comfortable deferring withdrawals for a few years before turning income on. It is less appealing for someone who mainly wants accumulation, needs regular access to more than the free-withdrawal amount, or doesn't actually intend to use the income rider — because in that case you'd be paying 1.20% a year for a feature you never collect on.

The main reason to buy ForeIncome II is to create future protected lifetime income while keeping principal safe from market losses in the meantime. The Guaranteed Income Builder applies a 10% roll-up to the income benefit base each year for up to 15 years, plus a 10% bonus to that base at issue, which builds a larger number to calculate your eventual lifetime withdrawals from. For a buyer who wants that income framework but doesn't want to commit for a full decade, the 7-year surrender period is a genuine point in its favor.

I think this annuity is best for someone in the pre-retirement or early-retirement window — roughly their 50s to mid-60s — who wants to use long-term money to set up future income, expects to defer withdrawals for several years, and likes having a built-in rider rather than relying on annuitizing later. Lifetime withdrawals can begin as early as age 55. It works for both qualified and non-qualified money, but it's least attractive for someone who wants the strongest possible growth terms, needs frequent liquidity, or isn't sure they'll ever switch income on.

You are not really buying stock market upside, and you are not buying a 10% return. You are buying a lifetime income framework wrapped around a principal-protected annuity. The contract tracks two different numbers: your actual account value (the real cash, which grows based on index crediting and is what you can withdraw or pass on) and a separate income benefit base (a bookkeeping figure that grows at 10% a year and exists only to calculate how much lifetime income you can take). The 10% roll-up applies to that benefit base, not your cash. When you activate income, your age and the benefit base together set a guaranteed annual withdrawal you can take for life — even if the account value eventually drops to zero.

The Guaranteed Income Builder is the built-in Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit, and it's the heart of this product. At issue, the income benefit base gets a 10% bonus (applied to the base, not to your account value and not earning index credits itself). Each contract year, the rider applies a 10% roll-up to the benefit base for up to 15 years, which is how the income number compounds while you defer. When you're ready — any time from age 55 on — you activate lifetime withdrawals. Your annual payout is the benefit base multiplied by a payout factor tied to your age at activation, and it continues for life even if the account value is fully depleted. The tradeoff to understand: the roll-up stops at year 15, and the benefit base is not a cash value — you can't surrender the contract and walk away with it.

The most meaningful secondary feature here is the Income Enhancement Benefit, a chronic illness provision available at no additional fee per the brochure. If you become unable to perform certain activities of daily living, this feature can increase your income payments for a period — turning the rider into a partial care-cost buffer on top of its retirement-income job. Because it doesn't carry a separate charge, it adds real value without adding cost. The contract also offers a menu of nine indexed crediting strategies (annual point-to-point, biennial point-to-point, performance triggered) across indices including the S&P 500, plus a fixed account crediting 3.00% per the brochure and a bailout provision if renewal rates drop below the bailout rate. That gives the owner more than one way to grow the account value side, though in an income product the crediting choices are secondary to the rider.

This annuity is built for long-term retirement dollars, not short-term cash needs. In year one you can withdraw up to 10% of premiums paid penalty-free; in later years it's up to 10% of account value annually. Anything above that during the surrender period is hit with a withdrawal charge that starts at 8% and steps down over seven years, and a market value adjustment (MVA — an adjustment that moves your surrender penalty up or down with interest rates) can also apply to larger withdrawals. Required minimum distributions appear to be accommodated, though RMD-friendliness is a low-confidence detail in the available materials, so confirm the exact treatment before relying on it. Nursing-home and terminal-illness surrender-charge waivers are available for qualifying situations. Even with those provisions, this is not a contract to treat like an emergency fund.

The headline cost is the rider fee: 1.20% per year, charged against your account value to pay for the Guaranteed Income Builder. That fee is deducted whether or not you've turned income on, so the math only works if you actually intend to use the lifetime-income feature. At 1.20%, it's a touch higher than some income-FIA peers that charge around 1.10%, which is part of why this lands as a strong rather than top-tier option. Beyond the rider, the structural tradeoffs are the usual ones for an income FIA: index crediting is capped or limited by participation rates and spreads, so account-value growth is intentionally restrained to support the income guarantees first. Current cap, participation, and spread terms are medium-confidence in the available materials and weren't confirmed at a specific rate — if you're shopping this, ask for the current rate sheet directly. There is no account-value premium bonus here; the 10% bonus applies only to the income benefit base.

Legal Entity: Forethought Life Insurance Company

Parent: Global Atlantic Financial Group

A.M. Best Rating: A